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The family of Sir Edmund Hillary will have a private meeting with the Queen after a memorial service near London in April.
A formal service of thanksgiving for Sir Ed's life will be held at Windsor Castle on April 2, to be hosted by the Queen, Buckingham Palace said at the weekend.
A small number of seats will be available for members of the public inside St George's Chapel, and the public can also apply for places in the Lower Ward, or Court, of the castle to hear the service broadcast outdoors, Prime Minister Helen Clark's office announced.
Several hundred tickets would be distributed by a ballot organised by Buckingham Palace and the New Zealand High Commission in London.
The service would include the laying up of Sir Edmund's Knight of the Garter banner.
Helen Clark said it had been a rare honour for Sir Ed to be made a Knight of the Garter, the oldest British order of chivalry.
"Other aspects of the service will be developed in consultation with the Hillary family," the PM said.
"The Hillary family will also attend a private audience with Her Majesty following the service.
"The service of thanksgiving at Windsor Castle will be a special and rare event. These exceptional arrangements reflect the personal and historical associations of the Queen with Sir Edmund since the beginning of her reign."
Sir Ed and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay conquered the 8848-metre Mt Everest on May 29, 1953, on the eve of Queen Elizabeth's coronation. Sir Ed died on January 11, aged 88.
His ashes will be scattered on Auckland's Waitemata Harbour this month in a private ceremony attended only by family, friends and some official guests.
The service will be on the sail training ship Spirit of New Zealand, and yesterday Helen Clark's office said the family wanted it to be private.
In his book, View from the Summit, published nearly 10 years ago, Sir Ed said he had never had any desire to end his days at the bottom of a crevasse on a mountain.
"I've been down too many of them for that to have much appeal."
He said he wanted to die peacefully and wanted his ashes "spread on the beautiful waters of Auckland's Hauraki Gulf to be washed gently ashore, maybe on the many pleasant beaches near the place where I was born.
"Then the full circle of my life will be complete."
- NZPA
